Week Thirteen

Well, five weeks of 'full work' and Fudge is travelling very well!  I really like his attitude and he's becoming very rideable.
I've had several rides this week with various degrees of improvement.  Saturday afternoon was very busy at the yard with lots of coming and going and consequently the horse was quite distracted and spooky.  I got a little steady trot work and then went for a walk around the block instead.  Sunday was much better and I had some really lovely moments of trots which strrrrrretched beautifully without sacrificing the swing or relaxation.  Sadly, the canters seem to have reverted a little and the left lead in particular was a little difficult to gain or maintain.
The difficulty maintaining the canter gave me an idea of what I next wanted to capture with the clicker: "slow down without breaking pace." It took a surprisingly few repetitions on the lunge and I think he also enjoyed getting 'chased' up into a big crazy trot for me to steady him back from.  I tried a few times in canter but he didn't catch on and just kept falling back to trot when I said "steady".  Will work some more on this one!
I also had a go at putting the dressage whip on the far side of him and trying to get him to cross his hind legs towards me.  VERY, very difficult for him and will require a good bit more work to get him confident.